Freedom of Information Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 6:30 pm on 19 October 2000.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lord Lucas Lord Lucas Conservative 6:30, 19 October 2000

The Minister also gave research as an example. He may not be as familiar with the situation as I, but he may remember that it was a major problem in the early days of the BSE epidemic. The Government, particularly MAFF, chose to withhold a great deal of statistical information about the course of the epidemic because it was the subject of their own research and eventual publications, supposedly. The situation was not revealed until the mid-1990s when for the first time the information was given to outside bodies. We then began to see that using the same information it was possible to draw completely different conclusions from those drawn by the MAFF researchers.

That was one of the principal causes of the wrong decisions which the government then made. The information had been withheld by--had been kept within--the MAFF scientists as part of their research project rather than being allowed out into the wider world. The Minister should be very careful about saying that that is a precedent which this Government want to follow.